Takeshi Shudō (首藤剛志) (August 18, 1949-October 29, 2010) was a Japanese scriptwriter best known for being the original showrunner and a frequent writer for Pokémon: The Original Series, including its first three films. During the making of the second movie, he also created the Pokémon Lugia, the first in the series to not be made in-house at Game Freak; Shudō originally envisioned Lugia as a film-exclusive character and was surprised to see it included in Pokémon Gold and Silver. He relinquished his role as series constructor (or showrunner) early in the Johto saga (following production of the third movie in 2000), although he would continue to contribute scripts until 2002; Episode 244, aired towards the end of Johto, was his final episode.
Reading his blogs reveal a lot of What Could Have Been for the anime series. His novels also go into detail on the anime's world, which paints it in a... different light than what many fans would think. He also wrote Pokémon: The Birth of Mewtwo radio drama which was later adapted into Pokémon: The First Movie, as well as the It's a White Tomorrow, Team Rocket! radio drama.
Prior to the anime, he worked on GoShogun, both instalments of Magical Princess Minky Momo (both of which which he worked on with Pokémon director Kunihiko Yuyama), Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko and Legend of the Galactic Heroes, among others.
A firm believer in Artistic Stimulation, Shudō's creative process revolved heavily around combining alcohol and over-the-counter tranquilizers to get his creative juices flowing, something he openly admitted to on his personal blogs. This behavior unfortunately and inevitably had ill long-term effects, contributing to his tragic death of a subarachnoid hemorrhage at age 61 in 2010. However, he received a Posthumous Credit as a writer for Pokémon: I Choose You!, a retelling of the start of Ash's journey and Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution, a remake of the first Pokémon movie that released nine years after his death.
Tropes:
- Eccentric Artist: A more depressing example than most. As stated in the description, Shudo had a history of substance abuse, on top of untreated depression that often made him rather erratic and temperamental to work with. His tendency to formulate his characters' dialogue through an intense form of method acting (in which he would allegedly wander around speaking with their mannerisms and personalities for days at a time) likewise may have drained him emotionally (further fuelling his depression and substance abuse) and further complicated communications with other production staff. Several of these behaviors would eventually contribute to his death in 2010.
- God Never Said That: A particularly egregious example. After his death, fans of his work like to greatly exaggerate just how much contempt he had for the executives of the anime, and that his original novels were made specifically to spite them. This isn't true; in truth, while he was frustrated by his ideals often being softened by the higher ups, he mostly maintained an amicable work relationship with those that worked on the anime (several of whom had collaborated with him on other shows), and merely wished to explore the
darker implications of the Pokémon world rather than making it dark specifically to spite the franchise. His willingness to stick with the anime until mid-to-late Johto gives an ideal of his willingness to work under the confines of the higher ups. - Outlived Its Creator: Pokémon: The Series would continue on long after his death, and it wouldn't be until 2023, a full 13 years after his death, would the story he started reach its proper conclusion, with Ash finally leaving as the protagonist of the series after deciding on what he feels a Pokémon Master is.
